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Pull up a chair and meet with several Carolina graduate students who are trying to improve the lives of North Carolina people.

Carolina graduate students play an important role in carrying out our research tasks and ensuring that the university serves all North Carolina people.

From helping to improve the health of people with diabetes to creating tools that help communities make more informed environmental decisions, graduate students are exploring important questions and issues.

Pull up a chair and meet with the next generation of leaders in North Carolina.

"I have been fascinated by exercise and nutrition for a long time. I chose this particular theme because it explores the unique intersection between my two hobbies, and it has the potential to have an impact on the health and well-being of people with type 1 diabetes."

As part of the research team of Professor Beth Mayer-Davis in the Nutrition Department of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, Franklin Muntis and his team are investigating nutritional and behavioral strategies that may improve the co-management of diabetes and weight. 1 Diabetes. Researchers are studying the effect of protein intake before and after exercise on blood sugar control during and after exercise.

"For people with type 1 diabetes, exercise usually causes unpredictable changes in blood sugar and increases the risk of hypoglycemia for up to 24 hours," Muntis said. "Although eating more carbohydrates during exercise can reduce the risk of hypoglycemia, it can create a sense of futileness for those trying to control their weight because the calories consumed during exercise are replaced by extra carbohydrates. Replaced by intake."

Increasing protein intake before and after exercise is a commonly recommended sports nutrition strategy to accelerate recovery and improve performance, but the same protein intake has also been shown to cause mild and sustained increases in blood sugar. If protein is consumed during exercise, increasing protein may help reduce the risk of hypoglycemia and improve overall blood sugar control in people with type 1 diabetes.

"There is very little research in this area," Montis said. "I hope that the results of my research will be used to provide sports nutrition guidelines for patients with type 1 diabetes, and help develop nutrition strategies to enable patients with type 1 diabetes to participate in more regular exercise, thereby improving their health and diabetes management."

"Have you ever wondered why some people get sick from an infection while others hardly notice? One factor is their genes. My research focuses on how genetic differences affect the immune system."

Brea Hampton said that she became a scientist because she likes to be on the edge of knowledge.

"Every little discovery I make in the lab is new information that can help solve bigger problems, little by little," she said.

Hampton’s work in the Heise laboratory focuses on the genomic regions that regulate the immune system. She believes that if researchers can determine which genomic regions control a healthy immune system, they can use this information to understand the immune response to infections and diseases.

"While doing what I like, I am also challenging the image of a scientist," Hampton said. "My hope is that when little black girls see me, they will also see themselves and know that it is possible to become a scientist."

"My research conceptualizes and constructs the technical poetics of black music and sound in the United States in the last century on technology."

Through his research, PhD. Student Aldwyn Hogg Jr. researched various historical and major sound sources to prove that no technology is neutral and unaffected by social power relations.

Hogg said: "I chose this topic because I am dedicated to revealing the usually subtle and natural connections between race, technology, and power in this country." "I have heard about the black sonic technical poetics of four technologies in four historical periods. ——Industrial washing machine systems in the 1930s, cars in the 1930s and 1940s, nuclear weapons in the 1940s and 50s, and the Apollo 11 mission to the moon in 1969—to write a new history of these technologies."

The black sonic technical poems used in his research also include Bessie Smith's blues songs, Andy Kirk's swing and jazz music, and Gil Scott-Heron's oral works.

Hogg also drew on various written materials to supplement his findings-from black newspapers, such as the Chicago guard, to people's memoirs and autobiography, including jazz band leader Duke Ellington. He even studied previously classified documents, such as the FBI surveillance records of the politically active singer Paul Robeson in the 1940s.

"I hope my research will eventually accomplish several things. First, I hope it can increase academic research on race and technology, and work to eliminate the illusion that technology is neutral," Hogg said. "Secondly, I hope that my concept of black sonic technology poetics broadens the scope of the research methods of race, technology, music and sound in the United States. Third, I hope it can write black people into their non-existent or hidden technological history. ."

"Environmental justice aims to repair and end the damage caused by the disproportionate environmental burden on low-wealth communities of color. My goal is to achieve the goal of environmental justice through data science."

As a first-year master's student in the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina, Ramirez-Flores is integrating her passion for environmental justice into her studies.

Earlier this year, Ramirez-Flores developed a story map that cross-referenced the relationship between environmental hazards, such as concentrated animal husbandry operations, sewer overflows, and landfills. Burial ground, the relationship with people of color and low-wealth communities. Additional research has produced more maps that illustrate the compound impact of these environmental burdens on these communities.

Ramirez-Flores also works at the Environmental Finance Center through the School of Government, where she is helping to develop and improve tools and data science to help organizations make sustainable financial and environmental decisions, especially issues related to water affordability .

"I hope to directly support environmental justice through my research and discussions related to these findings, and I hope to raise awareness of environmental injustice in our community," Ramirez Flores said, "As someone I admire has Remind me,'If we all do a small part of us, how much difference it can make.'"

The summit aims to respond to the current national and campus mental health crisis and is part of the university’s ongoing efforts to understand and solve mental health problems and well-being.

More than 82% of eligible Carolina students voted in 2020, an increase of nearly 25% from the 2016 election.

Community members, local veterans, ROTC students, and university and military leaders gathered at the Carolina Alumni Memorial Hall to commemorate those who lost their lives in military service to attend the university’s annual Veterans’ Day ceremony.

When many of his career and resume building experiences were suspended due to the pandemic, Manas Tiwari was looking for a way to gain practical experience and prepare for medical school. The Carolina COVID-19 Student Service Team became his perfect way out.

Carolina marine scientist Janet Nye wants to understand how ocean warming affects fish migration in order to help fisheries prepare for the future.

A group of graduate students led by associate professor Nick Law has been designing, engineering, and developing prototypes for a new telescope system that will enable researchers to explore phenomena that no one could explore before.

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